War horses, men with chutzpa and nearly being a princess

Katja’s art exhibitions are always fun, both to visit and to participate in. Her latest show, ‘Favourite Words,’ has spent the summer touring east London and now landed in its final home, Café Moka East @ The View Tube.

To celebrate the art show, this quirky café on the edge of the Olympic Park opened late on Thursday to host a cockney rhyming slang quiz. Two Geezers (men from a Bow-based community group who live and breathe slang) presented the questions and the group of artists and friends wracked our brains to win. Karen and I formed a tiny team with shamefully little knowledge of cockney slang for two born and bred Londoners. We didn’t do too badly though! And, although we didn’t win, we got a chorizo and red pepper Spanish tortilla – so that was okay!The words I submitted for the art exhibition were a set of three, framed in fuchsia and all beginning with ‘Ch.’ My point was about the fascinating linguistc disparity of the vocalisation of Ch – how the letters form different sounds (something I studied for my masters degree but boring to explain). Anyway, when I started dating after 20 years of marriage, these were the three qualities I looked for in a man, all beginning with Ch: charm, charisma and chutzpah!

Mentioning a Yiddish word is quite relevant today as it’s Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. A good opportunity to re-make the resolutions we failed to keep in January, before the end of this year’s Gregorian calendar. (And before the introduction of 2016’s chocolate advent calendars, as naughty people shouldn’t be allowed to have those.)

I spent Saturday afternoon making a mess with melting chocolate while watching War Horse at the New London Theatre. It was a stunningly presented production, simple and striking. I am not a horse person, but I think they’re beautiful, elegant creatures (from afar), with hauntingly knowledgeable eyes. Of course, Saturday’s horses weren’t flesh and blood, but I couldn’t have been more impressed with the way their personalities shone through if they had been alive and genuinely whinnying and snorting on stage.

Through my social media consultancy, I work closely with some military personnel and soldiers who’ve been wounded in action, but I give little thought to the animals who risk their lives to keep us safe. I did meet one incredible dog in April though, who served on the front line in Afghanistan. It’s horrendous to think of what the war horses actually went through.

From Leicester Square, we drove to Hyde Park for a wander around the Serpentine, as the early evening sun cast long shadows on the water. At the Diana Memorial Fountain, we watched children splashing around and I told Brian about my meeting with Prince William on the day the memorial opened. If you didn’t catch my embarrassing episode on TV at the time, you can read about it here. It’s true, I could have been a princess if I’d played my cards better… Oh well, who wants to live in a palace anyway?!

Whether you love the Queen, respect the monarchy or dislike what they stand for, who can’t admire a woman who’s worked solidly for almost 64 years? And she’s still smiling about it at 89 years of age! As they say, a woman’s work is never done…

So I’ll never be a princess, never be queen. But…

“If I was king for just one day, I would give it all away. I would give it all away to be with you. If I was king for just one day, I had just one thing to say… You know that love is all we need to get us through.” (Play it here.)

Love’s not all we need in business though. If you’d like advice on increasing your social media visibility leading up to Christmas, please get in touch now so we can get the bauble rolling. Call me on 020 8551 7077 or find me here: @WeekendWitch.

PS… Wishing a happy, healthy and sweet new year to all my Jewish friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and clients. And wishing a happy, healthy and sweet autumn to anyone who’s not celebrating that today!

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